The WiA get together to present at the Tesol 2007 EVO colloquium in Seattle. Nice to meet f2f all the people I have been working with online for so many years. We partied and laughed before the presentation. Teresa had to explain what was going on to participants.
The presentation was also transmitted online to participants who gathered in the Worldbridges chat and webcast monitored by Jeff Lebow and followed what we were saying through Skype together with the slides we had left online in the colloquium wiki.
However, as opposed to the TALO swapmeeting which occurred a week ago in Adelaide, the online element here predominated over the f2f, which is not a healthy combination either when we are doing it in both modes. I felt that although the group was was trying to pass forward the wonders of being connected, it was not curious to find out about the participants in the room and their previous experience in using these technologies, remaining very much closed within itself and its deeds, which confirms Stephen Downes’ graphic and post on the subject.
Hi Bee
Coming from the online side I thought I’d comment on one of your remarks:
“the online element here predominated over the f2f, which is not a healthy combination either when we are doing it in both modes. I felt that although the group was was trying to pass forward the wonders of being connected, it was not curious to find out about the participants in the room and their previous experience in using these technologies, remaining very much closed within itself and its deeds”
I think it is a difficult task to bring the online and f2f groups together, especially since I as an online-er had no idea if the f2f-ers could read what I wrote, amplified by the fact that we couldn’t see nor hear the f2f-ers (only the presentator). Connections seemed difficult (though I am aware that they are not impossible).
It was a great help to have Jeff guiding us through the wikis, though I don’t know if many people followed. For those how didn’t, it was much more difficult to follow, obviously. Also the comments about who was present near the end brought the f2f group closer. Yet there wasn’t any direct contact.
The result of the above was that I felt much more like an observer than a participant and didn’t really know what was expected of me.
I appreciate comments like the one above and see it as an offer of direction. It is a skill like many others that must be learned, but we’ve come this far already, I’m sure next time will be even better.
Finally, I really enjoyed the webcast and hearing all of the wonderful presentators.